Heroin epidemic taking a toll on communities in Lake County

Saturday

Sep 30, 2017 at 5:22 PMSep 30, 2017 at 5:23 PM

By Frank Stanfield / frankstanfield@dailycommercial.com

MOUNT DORA – Drugs are taking their toll on communities, medical and mental health providers and law enforcement officers fighting the problem, but the biggest losers are those who think they are buying their usual dose of heroin but end up injecting or snorting fentanyl, which is 10 times stronger.

Heroin overdoses went from 16 in 2016 to 68 so far this year, said Sheriff’s Cpl. Jonathan Chavis. Seven have resulted in death.

The five-county 5th Judicial Medical Examiner’s Office, which includes Lake, has had to hire more people and pay more money for a steep jump in toxicology tests, said Brett Harding, chief forensic investigator with the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Fentanyl, a synthetic pain-killer produced in China and frequently sold online on “the dark web,” wasn’t even counted until 2013, Harding said.

It still goes undetected sometimes because producers make new strains.

Heroin became the new drug of choice when the state cracked down on pain clinics dishing out oxycontin and other opioids like candy at Halloween.

After the crackdown, drug users went from paying $6 per pill to $30 or $40, Chavis said. Heroin, especially if mixed with fentanyl, is much cheaper.

The new “poison” is so powerful it takes at least six months for a person to start freeing themselves from addiction, Grinnell said.

He has equipped his deputies with Narcan, which immediately counteracts the drugs.

Chavis said he knows of three uses of Narcan in the past few weeks alone, including one deputy who found a man passed out in his car, a bag of heroin in his lap.

People have said to me, ‘Maybe you should give it to them the first time … why give it to them a second or third time? They should know they’re making bad choices,’” Grinnell said.

“That’s somebody’s daughter,” he said of a theoretical case, adding that the drug has such a drastic impact on the brain, “that it’s not the same person anymore.”

He said one of the best places for addicts is in his jail, which offers treatment and the Good News Jail Ministry. “We try to do everything we can but when they leave the jail I have no say so over their lives.”

Be Free Lake is made up of mental health professionals, nonprofits, county officials, school administrators, social workers and law enforcement.

One key to combating the problem is prevention, said James Argento, chairman of Be Free.

“We need to reach out to kids and adults,” the assistant state attorney said, and “we need recovery centers to break the cycle.”

Gov. Rick Scott just announced the state will free up $50 million for treatment. Florida, like other states, has declared an emergency over the growing heroin epidemic.

One of the 50 or so people attending the meeting at St. Philip Lutheran Church asked if there are programs for people who cannot afford private rehab.

The answer is yes, Argento said. There are some nonprofits doing “amazing work” he said, and cited the Christian Care Center, associated with First Baptist Church of Leesburg.

Law enforcement is another key component, he said.

Grinnell said he has been told, “You can’t arrest your way out of this problem.”

“That may be,” he conceded. “But if you’re dealing this poison we’re going to blow off your door hinges.”

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